This week Nintendo's latest portable console the DS Lite was released. It isn't a totally new console but a revision of the wildly successful DS. The DS is the latest in a long line of portable consoles from Nintendo. Nintendo entered the portable market with the GameBoy in 1989. I got one as a Christmas present in 1989. I got the system with the pack in game of Tetris, (something that Nintendo hasn't done since the NES and GameBoy at a system launch) Super Mario Land and Tennis. When I got the GameBoy my brother was pretty young so sharing wasn't as big an issue. Later my parents got my brother one of his own. The cool thing was we could play games against each other or use both gameboys with friends. I still have one of those original gameboys and it still works, more than I can say for many other consumer electronics of that age. At least one of them had the very common problem of vertical lines failing on the LCD. If I remember right it was fixed (replaced) by Nintendo. The original gameboy was actually less powerful than the NES. There were games released from 1989 to 2001 for the GB, 12 years for one console is pretty impressive.
Sometime in early 1999 I purchased a GameBoy Color. The GBC had a much better screen and it was color (duh). It also had a faster processor that made it perform much closer to the NES and even better in some cases. This system began a very cool trend of each new gameboy being able to play all previous games. This also gave it an instant game library in the hundreds. I only bought 1 or 2 GBC exclusive games.
Then in late 2001 I got a Game Boy Advance. The GBA was actually a totally new platform; however to ensure backwards compatibility it contained a much shrunken and cost reduced version of the processor from the GBC (which itself was just a faster version of the original GB). The GBA is more powerful than the SNES. This is shown in its ability to play SNES games such as Super Mario World and even games with better graphics. Older GB games stuck out a bit since the newer GBA games were about half the size of older ones. I have about 10 games for the GBA. Two of which are a new Metroid and a re-release of the original NES Metroid much tweaked. One of the problems this particular handheld had was the screen and the fact it had no backlight. The screen was denser and needed a great deal of ambient light to be viewable. There was even a mod released called Afterburner to add a backlight.
Nintendo fixed the screen problem with the release of the GameBoy Advance SP in early 2003. I got one sometime in the summer 2003. The GBASP was also the first GameBoy to feature a rechargeable battery and would run for more than 10 hours on a single charge. It was a very nice redesign and played quite well. Unfortunately this is the last GameBoy both in name and backwards compatibility. The GBASP with its ability to play all GB games ever released has a library of almost 1000 games available for it, by far the most of any console. Last fall a revised version of the GBASP was released with an even more improved screen and a longer lasting battery. I will be keeping my GBASP even though I have a DS Lite for backwards compatibility.
In late 2004 Nintendo released the DS which was short for Dual Screen. This handheld console bears a very strong resemblance to the old Nintendo Game & Watch line of games. The DS is not officially a successor to the GameBoy line but more of a spiritual one. This handheld was bit different, it had a lower screen that was a touch screen used with a stylus. The unconventional nature of the handheld slowed sales a bit I think since people were unsure of the usage of this new console. The DS is similar in performance to the N64 and this was shown with the launch title of Super Mario 64 DS. The game was actually revised and improved showing the DS to even be superior to the N64. The other cool feature the DS has is the ability to play wirelessly locally with others, often with only one cartridge needed. It also has the ability to play on the Internet via the Nintendo Wi-Fi service. In certain stores and locations you can even download games onto the DS's internal memory. With the DS Nintendo also again shrank the cartridges. The games are basically a ruggedized version of an SD card. The cards now have storage on them just like other flash media for game saves and the games no longer require battery backups like the old NES, SNES and N64 games. The DS is able to play GBA games but not GB or GBC games. Nintendo could have easily allowed GB games to physically work in the DS; however Nintendo chose not to include the hardware needed for backwards compatibility and apparently didn’t want to attempt emulation. Allowing GBA games adds a library of several hundred games, the ability to play games that are a minimum of 4 years old is more debatable. As games came out that showed how inventive the DS and its touch screen could be the system has accelerated in sales. None of the launch games particularly inspired me so I passed on the system initially.
This week Nintendo released the DS Lite, it is a revision of the DS very similar to the GBA and GBASP. It is considerably smaller, lighter and has a much better pair of screens. The battery also lasts longer due to another year or so of battery developments. The DS Lite maintains its backwards compatibility with the GBA games; however they stick out a bit due to the new shape of the Lite.
The DS just like the various GB before it and possibly even more so seem to be accessible to those who aren't traditionally gamers. There were many GameBoy games that appealed to people that didn't usually play games if they gave it a chance. With the DS Nintendo is taking it even further with the release of it’s Touch Generations line of games. Last night when I went to Kelly's I left my DS on the table while I went outside. When I came back she was playing Brain Age. I look forward to trying out some of the more original and creative games on the DS as well as playing some more of the older DS and GBA games.
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